Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting What rifles in deer camp?

I take 3 with me when going to the woods, use is dependent on weather and preference day to day

1. Winchester mdl 70 LH Mcmillan fiberglass stock Leupold 2 X 12 VX6. 300 Win Mag. Go to gun
2. DPMS Hunter II AR-10 .308. Again Leupold VX6 2 X 12
3. TC encore 22” .308 stainless. Leupold VX-R 3X9

My son comes to camp

Kimber Montana 270 WSM. Swaro 4 X 12

Locally I saw a fired 6.5 CM case carried by most likely a woman. I saw the foot print and there was a squat to pee spot. She was exceptionally deep in the woods. The I I bumped into two guys on road out when I was repacking. They were road hunters together. One had a beat up 336 JM in 30-30, the other a 700 bdl in 300wm.

My group
Son sako A-7 270 Win 130NAB
Step son Kimber Hunter 7-08 120NBT
Great young friend Browning Abolt 25-06 100NBT
Me Kimber 84m select 257R 100NBT
They all worked

350s are catching on where I hunt in Ohio as well. By next year I figure just about everyone I hunt around up there will be using one.
I only seen one slug gun left in the group.

My kinda place!

In camp this year

Winchester 1894 .38-55
Winchester M70 .358
Winchester M70 7mm RM
Marlin 1895 Trapper .45-70
Savage 110 .30-06
Savage 170 Carbine .30-30
Savage 99 .300
Ruger MKII Compact 7-08
Ruger American .450 BM
Remington 760 .270

The .358, '06 and .270 were the only ones that drew blood

2x Cooper 280 AI
Tikka Custom build 6.5 GAP Saum
S&W 629 44 mag
both 280 AI's drew blood. As did the 44 Mag.

2 - Ruger #1 - 257 Weatherby mags. , Ruger # 1 -7 Rem. mag. , Ruger # 1 - 220 Swift , Browning BLR 30-06

Solo hunter. Custom 25-06. 11 Pt. WT.

My KS hunt with FIL, he used a Rem semi-auto 30-06, his grandson used grandfathers Marlin 30-30 (killed a doe), I used Defiance/Proof 308 (buck and doe), FIL didn't connect.

I have a new to me 99 to take this year in 375 Winchester. Got supplies to load this next week.

Me - .38-55 WIN, 257 WBY, 300 WBY

Son - 257 WBY

Buddy - 7mm REM mag

Other guy - .22-250 - shot at three deer. None found. Wounded Buck hooked tracking dog requiring stitches

I used my Tikka T3X SS SUPERLITE IN 7mm-08
Buddies Custom 25-06 and custom 280ai

I hope to have a 338 Federal by next season, be perfect for one of the place I hunt

I use a 25-06 these days. Most everyone else uses a 30-06.

Out of our group of 4;

Mark X .300 Win

Tikka T3 lite .300 Win

Remington 700 .300 RUM

Remington 700/HS Precision 7mm Rem Mag (Me)

The next weekend I brought my 6mm Creed. (Savage 10 in HS Stock) and I was the only one to kill a deer. 300 yards 1 and done 103 ELDX. Son used it a couple days later to take a doe. I killed a second buck with the 7mm two days later in a different unit.

You guys have 600 pound deer or something?

Ha, no but they just use the .300 for everything Antelope to Elk. It is wide open out here and .300s, 7mm, .270, .25-06 seem to be the most popular. Many like my FIL have one gun they use (he has a .270 and .25-06 too) and it seems to be a .300.

In my 55+ years of deer hunting, I don't think more than 5 of them were from a camp with other hunters.

I shot my first deer in 1965 in a camp with one of my college roommated, his Dad and one of his friends.
I used a borrowed Winchester lever action in .32 Win, and can't remember what the others used.

A couple of years after that I bought my first centerfire rifle, a .30-06, and I used for about 10 years for all of my big game hunting.

My first wife hunted with me a few years and I bought her a Ruger M77 in .308 Win.

One year in the early '70s two friends and I went on a one day muzzleloader deer hunt in NW Colorado. I used a .45 cal percussion long rifle, and again I can't remember what the others used.

I built an Interarms Mauser in .257 Ackley in 1978 and it has been my primary deer rifle ever since, but I don't think that I have used it from a deer camp.

In 2019 I went on a Sitka Blacktail deer hunt on Kodiak Island and stayed in a camp with 4 hunters from New Hampshire. I used a Weatherby Vanguard chambered in .308 Win, and again I don't remember what rifles the others used.

Now if the question is expanded from deer camps to any hunting camps, I've hunted in many around the world where the variety of rifles in those camps varied from .22-250 to .375 H&H.

9.3x62 this year.